My first attempt at real estate imaging

[Superbaldguy]

Due to various reasons, I am trying to create a secondary income from doing photography for local RE agents. I had one of the more successful Realtors ask me to shoot a $385,000 property as a sample for my portfolio (this was a freebie for practice), and he admittedly wanted better images than he currently had on this older listing.

I had no trouble getting what I needed using the 16-85mm VR on the D80. The key to these files was the light - the SB-800 was bounced, it provided a very soft and well-dispersed lighting pattern. Also, I was able to balance the interior ambient light with the outdoor light so the window areas didn't look washed out.

I shot in RAW and saved as good-quality using NX2 (60%) JPEGs, that's what the upload requirement is for his broker. I had to do some color enhancement (not much), some use of D-Lighting and mild distortion correction. The nice thing is the WB was perfect due to the flash, he had complained some "professional" photographers how had done this for him in the past missed out on a lot of these simple things.

The 10-24mm would be handy but not absolutely necessary; if I continue to do this, the next tool will be the SB-900.

The agent says he will provide me the URL for the MLS listing once he has uploaded and created the Web page - I will promptly send out the URL to the various local agents as a sort of preliminary start to my portfolio. My big challenge is to convince these agents that they need to spend a few dollars and get it right, a compact PS cannot do the job.

Word of mouth advertising is very valuable in a small community area.

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[BruceF]

Looks like you are off to a good start. But, watch your verticals. The fireplace shot looks like the floor isn't level. If you are going to be doing a lot of RE photography you might want to look at PTLens to correct for barrel/perspective distortion created by the wide angle lens. http://epaperpress.com/ptlens/

 

[Superbaldguy]

Thanks for the link, I was hoping the corrective mode in NX2 was enough. The agent was happy with these enough that he wants me do to another one.

 

[Kiwi Geoff]

Good for you, great to get going at what you set out to do!!
I immediately noticed the distortion as well. Getting this right will have your images really stand out!!

 

[Superbaldguy]

It seems NX2 is a bit limited, I did play with that file but I couldn't quite get it right.

 

[Kiwi Geoff]

Here is a quick tweek done in Photoshop:

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This may give you some ideas.:smile:

 

[Superbaldguy]

Looks fine, I noted that ptlens is related to PhotoShop, can a more affordable software package do this?

 

[Kiwi Geoff]

It looks like PTLens is a stand alone or plug-in to Photoshop. It also looks as if it is Windows only which is probably why I haven't given it much attention!!:smile:

 

[Superbaldguy]

I am still trying to find a price for it. One thing I can do is to bring down the height of the tripod, that should give me straighter lines. Kudos to Nikon's flash system for making this even possible.

 

[Superbaldguy]

The agent just got back to me and said the images will be in the new listing, tomorrow. He is very concerned as to what happens after he uploads and these high-res (1.5 MB) JPEG's are re-sized, tons of distortion and moire artifacts. He showed me the sample image files that are being uploaded, I instantly noted they were a measly 20 KB in size!

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Is there anything he an do except see if the upload settings can be changed? It certainly is not a good reflection on my work.

 

[BruceF]

You should be shooting from midway between the floor and ceiling to help minimize the distortion.

As for the files, find out the size they are displaying on the site and resize them yourself.

 

[Superbaldguy]

The file size on Realtor.ca is 260x200.

The agent suggests I try to submit files to him that are 320x210 so auto resizing won't damage the images. I can easily do that by starting at the highest compression setting on NX2 and resizing with PSP, but will I end up losing a lot of quality and will it fix this issue?

I could shoot in JPEG, but, will I be able to use my PP tools effectively?

 

[Philinnz]

Give the agent two sizes for each photo, the larger one for any print work / brochures etc and resize a set of smaller ones, - that way you can control the quality better. One way to downsize is to write a macro for incremental downsizing - this helps keep the detail in place.

Re your verticals and barrel distortion. If you are serious about RE photography, you will really need to invest in photoshop, even an older version such as CS2 will give good results and enable you to use PTLens.

A wide angle lens is essential for RE work. The sigma 10-20 is an excellent low cost lens for this type of work

 

[Superbaldguy]

I have been unable to find a price for that software. Looks to be very helpful, though. What about PS Elements or Lightroom? Do they have effective distortion correction?